Age Should Not Stop You from Getting Your Health Back

How a Lady Reversed Her Diabetes and Lost 160 Pounds at Age 93:

What a better way to start this blog than to tell you all about a remarkable story of a 93-year-old lady who, at her age, reversed her diabetes, lost weight, was sick less often, and began living again.

Ms. Dorothy Graham came to me for help three years ago to treat her diabetes, which she has had for 11 years, along with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. She had been on oxygen 24/7 and had not been able to walk for 12 years. At that time, she was taking 18 different medications, including metformin, glyburide, and 40 units of insulin twice a day. She was miserable. I told her that the only way she could get better is to change her diet and modify her lifestyle. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really expecting her to heed my advice as most people of her age would not. They are in the twilight years of their lives, and change is not something they want. But to my surprise, she willingly joined my diet program . I saw in her eyes that she was yearning to regain the comfort she had been missing for years because of her condition.

She started the program on August 29, 2012. She did everything I asked her to do. She read my book from cover to cover several times. She asked questions and learned everything she could about diet. I taught her what to eat and what foods to avoid, how to handle stress, how to sleep better, how fasting could help, and which exercises to do. She ate the Reddy Bread , using our recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Within three days, her blood sugar dropped too low so we had to stop her glyburide and insulin.

Ms. Graham followed the program “to a T,” and, by the end of three months, she was off all her medications, her blood pressure was normal, she was no longer a diabetic, her congestive heart failure had been resolved completely, she stopped needing oxygen, she was sleeping better, she had more energy, and she had lost 55 pounds. Eventually, by the end of one year, she went from a dress size 24 to a size 18 and lost a total of 160 pounds.

The most amazing thing of all is that, within less than six months, she was able to walk again with the help of only a walker. Her ambulation continued to improve through the years, and now, at the age of 96, she is able to walk and to go up and down stairs without assistance. She rides the bus by herself to go for physical therapy five days a week and occasionally does yoga. Overall, she is enjoying a better quality of life and is doing the things she could not do before. She even started learning how to use a computer for the first time.

I shared this story to you for three reasons.

1. Diabetes is more serious than we can imagine. The latest data from the National Diabetes Statistics Report state that 29.1 million people in the United States have diabetes, 86 million are pre-diabetic, and 8.1 million remain undiagnosed. Sadly, 9 out of 10 do not even know they are pre-diabetic. By 2050, up to 1 in 3 American adults will have full-blown diabetes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Diabetes robs people of the capability to enjoy a good quality of life, incapacitates the workforce, threatens the economy, and burdens the health care system. We need to be aware where this disease is taking us so we can focus on what to do about it.

2. Diabetes can be reversed, but it is not through medications or weight-loss surgeries. It is only through diet and lifestyle changes. I am not undermining the value of modern pharmaceuticals here. I believe they are very helpful in moving you out of the danger zone of debilitating diseases like diabetes. But once you are out of this zone, you need to be able to discontinue the medications and start reversing the disease process naturally by eating the right food and changing your habits. Keep in mind that when you have an infection, you take antibiotics for only 7 to 10 days or few weeks–or months in some cases–but not for years or a lifetime.

Medications will never prevent the complications of diabetes. People have a false sense of security thinking that since they are taking maintenance medications, they can eat whatever they want. If diabetes is a disease of high blood sugar and a patient continues to eat foods that raise the blood sugar and must then take medications to lower the blood sugar, how is that helping?

3. I shared this story to let you know that it is never too late to change. Ms. Graham was 93 when she started to change her eating habits and her life style. She was not only advanced in age, but her diabetes had also progressed to the point where she was having complications. However, these didn’t stop her from taking the first step towards her recovery. If she can improve her health dramatically, then everybody can! Change your lifestyle today and start learning how to eat and live right. Join me and let’s battle diabetes together. I assure you, we will win this fight.

The key to Ms. Graham’s success was her dedication to the Eat This Lose That program and the Reddy Bread with its recipes. If you want to learn more about how our program changed her life, go to www.reddycardiology.com and click on her video.